Free Hand For Lord Hinton
Page 44
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ORD HINTON was free to make his inquiry into transport co-ordination in the way he thought fit: he was not coming into the Civil Service to make the inquiry on the basis of an office boy. This was the answer from Lord Lindgren, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, to complaints in the Upper House this week that Lord Hinton would not be making an independent investigation.
Lord Chesham noted that the Minister of Transport had told the Commons last week that Lord Hinton was not to make an independent investigation, but he asked who was to conduct the "objective inquiry Mr. Fraser mentioned on February I. Could Lord Lindgren explain this contradiction over the period of a week?
The reply from Lord Lindgren was that Lord Chesham was being a little " slick " and had quoted Mr. Fraser out of context. "It was much different from that of a complete outsider making a report to the Minister and to Parliament."
This caused Lord Newton to ask whether Lord Lindgren was not really saying that this much heralded inquiry was nothing else but an ordinary departmental inquiry. If that were so were not all departmental inquiries objective? If they were not, why was Lord Lindgren trying to emphasize the objectivity?
He was certain that all departmental inquiries were objective, replied Lord Lindgren. They tried to ascertain the facts and to give, on the basis of the facts, the opportunities for action. It was a political decision for Ministers to take action arising from the facts objectively put before them by the Civil Service or by their advisers in other capacities.